TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCHES
ARRIVAL OF THE STEAMER ACADIA
New York, August 14
The steamer Acadia arrived at Boston this morning, bringing seven days later
advices from Europe. She left Liverpool on the 29th ult.

IRELAND
In Ireland, there has been no outbreak yet. The habeas corpus act had been
suspended. Troops are constantly arriving from England, and are almost
immediately sent south, principally in the counties of Kilkenny and Meath,
where the danger is most imminent. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland has sent
his family to England.- The Government seems fully prepared for any
emergency, but pikes will be numerous, though in the hands of an
undisciplined band, and barricades may be attempted.- A proclamation has
been issued suppressing all clubs. Sir Charles Napier's squadron has arrived
in the Cove. Warrants have been issued for the arrest of O'Brien, Meagher,
and others, and a reward of £600 has been offered by the Government for
their apprehension. They have escaped from Dublin, and are now engaged in
drilling men in the provinces. The Government has refused stamps for the
circulation of the "Felon" and Dublin "Nation" newspapers,
so as to prevent
their circulation through the mails, and the police are ordered to seize and
destroy copies, wherever found. The constabulary force, has every where been
largely increased.

The steamer Cambria arrived this morning bringing seven days later advices
from Europe.

Ireland.
On the issue of the proclamation by the Government, the confederates retired
to their southern strongholds. The first encounter had was with the police
near Mullonhone. The police retreated to a house, where a siege under
O'Brien was commenced. The insurgents shortly afterward, were totally routed
and dispersed by the cavalry. All the southern counties have proclaimed
against the government. Several arrests have been made,and the parties taken
to Dublin. The Repeal clubs in Dublin have been dissolved. The barricades at
Thurles have been attacked, andthe insurgents repulsed. The details are full
concerning the skirmishes, but every where the Irish have yielded, and
fled.- The triumph seems complete. Itis impossible to digest the details.
The hopes of the Irish are for the present evidently clouded.

Gen. McDonely has command in Bralingary, where all is peaceful, but the
withdrawl of the troops will be the signal for the renewal of outbreaks.

O'Brien is supposed to be concealed in the mines.

Viscount Harding has reached Dublin, and will assume the chief command, if
necessary, where fifty thousand troops are stationed. The search for arms is
vigorously prosecuted in all seditious counties. The Irish are yielding to a
stern necessity.

The European Times says the movement is evidently a failure. The most
sanguine of the confederates must now be aware that there never existed the
smallest chance of their successfully coping with the British arms.

[From the Liverpool Journal of 5th August]
Ireland

The accounts from Ireland are somewhat confused, but every version of the
story makes against Young Ireland. O'Brien threw away the scabbard of his
sword, and retained only the blade.

Meagher bought a disguise from a slop shop too??? post chaise, and showed
superiority of speed. The rebels were allowed to choose their own ground,
and in their selection they only looked to the advantages it offered for an
easy retreat. There were skirmishes- even a battle.
[From the St. Louis News]
HIGHLY IMPORTANT FROM IRELAND!!
Cheering News!!
New York, August 21.

From the recent correspondence of the N.Y. Tribune, written in cipher to
avoid the vigilance of the British Government, it appears that the affairs
in Ireland have been most villainously misrepresented. The newspapers do not
contain a word of truth concerning the battle in Shevenan, but from all that
we can learn the people have obtained a great victory!

Gen. McDonald, the commander of the British troops and six thousand of his
men, were killed and wounded. The road for three miles is covered with the
dead. We have also inspiring accounts that Kilkenny and Limerick have been
taken by the people.

The people of Dublin have gone in thousands to assist their countrymen in
the country.

O'Brien has sixty thousand men around him. B. Dillon was wounded in both
legs. Mr. Meagher in both arms.

It is generally expected that Dublin will rise and attack the jails on
Sunday night, August 6th.

The Third Buff Regiment of Infantry and the 8th Regiment Athlone turned over
and fought with the people.

The Irish affairs are greatly exaggerated by the tory papers of England-
they represent that the only disturbance was between the constabulary force
and that of O'Brien, by the former attempting to apprehend the latter. The
confederates were evidently unprepared for an attack to immediately follow
the issuing of the proclamation suspending the habeas corpus act.

BULLETIN FROM THE NEW YORK EMMET CLUB.
New York, August 19, 1848

The "Cambria" has arrived. Her news contained in Tory papers is
intended to
deceive the public- depress the cause of Ireland. Collisions have occurred,
the precise result of which cannot be stated, as the patriotic journals are
all suppressed; but known events received in the light of our previous
informations are all encouraging. The whole government force has been
employed for a week in attempting to arrest the leaders without effecting a
single capture. These leaders have adopted the most effectual means and will
be successful.--We repeat our appeal-- we urge upon our friends in every
part of the Union prompt and continued action.
ROBERT EMMET, CHAS.
O'CONNOR,
JAS. W.
WHITE,
THOMAS HAYES,
HORACE GREELY, JOHN McKEON
MICH'L O'CONNOR, B. O'CONNOR,
Directory of the Friends of Ireland.
The Editors of all American journals, friendly to the Liberty of Ireland,
are requested to give this immediate insertion.
IRELANDIn other columns of our paper will be found the latest and most authentic
news from Ireland. The telegraphic news from the Mo. Republican of last
Saturday endorses that previously received and published in full, from the
secret correspondence of the N.York Tribune. The news is, as said by the S.t
Louis Union, cheering to the friends of Ireland and of freedom, and we are
always rejoiced to hear of a people throwing off their dependence upon other
and oppressive powers and declaring themselves free and independent. In this
instance, although we confess our sympathies to be in favor of Ireland, yet
we have no hope that she will accomplish her independence. The forty-seven
years she has been associated with England have so completely bound her
interests with those of that kingdom, that we fear it will require a
struggle more powerful than she will be able to make, to free herself
therefrom.- The Irish have summoned all of their strength and made a blow
that will be felt, and we fear, reciprocated by England.- They have been
oppressed sufficiently long by the British Government, and we glory to see a
few proud spirits rising superior to the mass and asserting their intention
of no longer holding allegiance to a power whose every action tends to give
the hard face of poverty. If those leaders can only infuse the spirit into
the people, old Ireland will at least make a hard struggle for her liberty,
and if she then obtain it not it will from the adversity of the
circumstances and not from the want of united effort. But this cannot be
done, those leaders cannot impart their enthusiasm to the people and as a
consequence, as above intimated, Ireland can at this time accomplish
nothing.

Even while we write, have we received the following important telegraphic
intelligence from Galena, which goes far to confirm what we have just
remarked, that a sufficient union cannot be effected in Ireland to achieve
her independence:-

"The steamship Britannia arrived at Boston about 9 o'clock, last Saturday
morning. The ship was telegraphed in the offing. A carrier pigeon express
arrived with the following news, which was sent off South and West before
the boat landed, thus beating all the city news associations.

"Smith O'Brien was arrested on Saturday evening, at Thales Railroad Depot,
while procuring a ticket for Limerick, where he was seeking refuge among his
friends.

"The Government in Ireland reigns supreme. Every precaution has been taken,
and every day lessens the probability of an outbreak.

"O'Brien is lodged in Dublin Jail. He expresses hopelessness at being able
to accomplish his object, as the people in the mountains seemed afraid to
harbor him. His wife and family are freely admitted to see him in prison. He
seems cheerful."

Specie
from Ireland- The vessel Preussischer Adler, arrived in the river Thames
from Cork, has brought as a portion of her cargo, ten boxes of specie. This is a
second arrival of specie, to a similar extent, within a few days from Cork; and
we, therefore, make especial mention of it as being particularly remarkable, and
of very unusual occurrence.

The
Cork Constitution contains the following startling announcement:
"A body of 600 Young Irelanders, in regular
military order, twenty feet deep, marched through the streets on Sunday night,
singing the Irish Marseillasse. On Wednesday evening a procession, with
flambeaus and torches, paraded the streets with music."

It is
said the Government contemplates an immediate application to Parliament for
authority to raise a loan for emmigration. The amount it is said will be at
least £500,000, perhaps £1,000,000.

The Gazette
published Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Sep 14, 1848

NEWS BY THE BRITANNIA!
Important from Ireland- Arrest of Smith O'Brien- Escape of O'Gormans to
America- Arrest of Several American Citizens, &c, &c.

VERY INTERESTING FROM IRELAND
Affairs in Ireland have not materially changed, though every day seems to
lessen the probability of any serious outbreak. That this unfortunate
country is not now plunged into all the horrors of a civil war, is not to be
attributed to the disinclination of the people to rise up in arms- but,
rather it would seem to be the want of bold, able, and trusted leaders.

There does not appear to have been any serious disturbance in any part of
the country since the Cambria sailed, and according to the English accounts,
it seems quite impossible that there should be any, so long as the
government sustains its present attitude of repression.

Numerous arrests continue to be made, and, among others of recent date, we
notice the names of Dr. M.Carron; Mr. Jas. Bergen, ship broker, of N. York,
and Mr. Nolan, of the United States.

Richard O'Gorman, for whose arrest £300 was offered, on attempting to escape
from the country, was arrested by the Coast Guard, after he had crossed the
Shannon in an open boat. Notice was forthwith sent to the police, but before
they arrived, O'Gorman had persuaded his captors that he was a mere
traveller from Perry to Clare- and he was allowed to leave in his boat. He
subsequently boarded a vessel bound down the Shannon, and going to America,
in which he had escaped. A war steamer was despatched after the vessel.

[From the Freeman's Journal.]
We have received the following important communication from a correspondent
in whom we have perfect faith--
THURLES, Tuesday, 7 o'clock, P.M.
I have just learned, through a source in which I can implicitly rely, that a
communication has been made to the Irish government through the mediation of
an influential Catholic Clergyman, from the parties, who, next after William
Smith O'Brien, were considered the most important against whom warrants have
been issued. The communication, I understand, is to the effect, that these
gentlemen undertake to surrender themselves to the government upon receiving
the assurance that none of the proceedings instituted against any of the
State prisoners shal lextend to the taking of life. It appears that this
communication was induced on the parties hearing of the arrest of Smith
O'Brien on Saturday evening.

It is stated that one of the chief witnesses for the Crown, at the trials of
Mr. Smith O'Brien, and the other parties implicated in the insurrection and
conspiracy, will be Mr. P.J. Barry, who had been Secretary of the first
Young Ireland Association, and who remained all along a prominent member of
the Confederacy.

The Government has issued another proclamation which may almost be
understood as Lord Clarendon's reply to the attempt to induce him to enter
into communication with the outlaying insurgents.- This proclamation, after
reciting the former one of the 1st of August, denouncing the penalty of
treason upon whoever should harbor or conceal the conspirators, adds the
following caution, intending to cramp their hopes of escaping to America in
British vessels.

FURTHER CAUTION
All masters of emigrant ships, packets and sea-going vessels, are hereby
warned that the penalty of treason will attach equally to them should they
be concerned in favoring the escape of any of the persons above named, or
others, whom they shall know to have been engaged in treasonable practices.

Annexed is a List of the Political Prisoners.
Wm. Smith O'Brian, M.P., for the county of Limerick
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor of the Nation.
John Martin, proprietor of the Felon.
Joseph Brennan, sub-Editor of the Felon
John Lawless, Secretary of the Sandymount Club, Dublin.
Francis Hawley, North Earl street, Dublin.
Mr. Nolan, supposed to be an American sympathiser, arrested at Thurles.
Mr. Ryan, surgeon, Carrick-on-Suir.
Mr. O'Ryan, Cashel.
Thomas Witty, farmer, or land owner, Wexford county.
Francis Strange, solicitor, Waterford, President of the Felon Club there.
Supple Glover, Waterford.
Patrick McAuliffe, clothier, Waterford
Mr. Fogarty, assistant surgeon, Waterford.
Thomas Wm Condon, whitesmith, secretary to the Wolfe Tone Club, Waterford.
Mr. Taafe, barrister, Dublin.
Twenty-one countrymen from the neighborhood of Ballingary, in the county of
Tipperary, charged with having assisted Smith O'Brian in the attack on the
police.
William Marron, editor of the Drogheda Argus.
J.S. Barry, editor of the Cork Southern Reporter.
Ralph Varien, Cork.
Isaac Varien, Cork.
Ten drapers' assistants from Messrs. Pims' establishment, Dublin.
S.J. Meany, of the Irish Felon.
Mr. West, surgeon, Dublin.
M. Carron, of America.
James Bergen, ship broker of New York.
Mr. Butler, editor of the Galway Vindicator.
Mr. Costigan of Castlebar.
Denny Dane, merchant, Cork.

The following letter, from a member of the press,
who has visited Tipperary,
gives a rather important detail of the feeling which prevails in the south
of Ireland:
"After having traversed the greatest part of both ridings of the county of
Tipperary, I halt at this little village, situated at the foot of the Galtee
mountains, and on the borders of the county of Limerick, to give you a brief
abstract of the result of my observations. Rebellion I found not. I have
said that I did not find rebellion- that is true. I did not see an army of
insurgents, or any thing that gave indication of the actual existence of
civil war; nevertheless a rebellion does exist- if the whole of the south of
Ireland is not at this moment plunged into all the horrors of a civil or
rather a servile war, the reason is to be attributed not to the
disinclination of the people to rise up in arms, but solely to the want of a
proper opportunity, and of bold, able and trusted leaders. This is no hasty
impression or idle guess-work. It is a deliberate conviction, founded on the
most satisfactory evidence. Every mile I've travelled, every person I
conversed with, every fact bearing on the subject which has come under my
obsdrvation- all have served to impress indelibly on my mind the truth of
the statement I have made. Let no man "lay the flattering unction to his
soul" that the spirit of disaffection has been crushed; true it is that the
wise and salutary precautions of the government have saved the country form
convulsion for the present; but the winter is fast approaching, the season
for a bivouac will have passed, the troops must be drawn into winter
quarters, and then the hour for mischief will have arrived. I have heard it
stated, and the statement seems probable, that the leaders intend to remain
passive until the winter sets in; that they are quite satisfied, for the
present, with harrassing the soldiery, and frightening the government; but
that they are steadily biding their time. Much, however, will depend upon
circumstances. In the course of my wanderings, I have met with a great many
country gentlemen, and all of them agree in thinking that the rebellion is
not extinguished- that it still smoulders, and they look with considerable
apprehension to he coming winter. Certainly it is unreasonable to calculate
that all the wild theories which have been propounded by the anarchists and
Jacobins- the visions of wealth, happiness, and independence which been held
out to the misguided people, it is unreasonable to suppose that these
congenial theories have taken no root, or that the people after such golden
dreams, will sing back without a struggle of some kind, into their former
position. The absentees are fast returning to the country, and there are at
present a great number of resident gentry in the county of Tipperary. I
trust their presence may serve to check the existing spirit of
insubordination in all quarters. I have heard that there has been no
surrender of arms worth speaking of, under the proclamation- the
constabulary are busily engaged in searching for them, and to-day I met a
large force in the neighborhood of the town of Tipperary, engaged in that
business, but with little success. The conduct of the Roman Catholic clergy,
in the present crisis, have been most praiseworthy, and I have heard it
commended by their bitter political opponents. On last Sunday, Dr. Howley,
the parish priest of the town I have just mentioned, delivered a most
impressive discourse to his flock, on the criminality of the club system,
and I have authority for stating, that it produced the very best results.
The police in this county are extremely vigilant. Patrols scour the country
every night, and all persons found out at unreasonable hours, are
searched."

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
October 26, 1848

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE
Interesting Details from Ireland.

We have been permitted to make the following extract from a letter received
in town this morning from Kilkenny. The letter was written by a gentleman of
the highest respectability:-

(Extract)
"KILKENNY, Tuesday, 13th September., 1848.
"The neighborhood of Carrick is in a dreadful
state--thousands of men
in array on the hills there. I have just seen a gentleman from Carrick at
the bank, who came by the car. They were stopped at the slate quarries by
about sixty men in arms, and he saw the police barrack, as he was passing,
in flames. He says it is owing to the tenants being driven on some estates
there, but that the hills are covered with armed men. I think he was so much
frightened that he exaggerated the matter.- However, there is no doubt, but
that they are on the hills in that place."

The latest accounts are inclusive in the extreme. One
thing only is
known with certainty, that the utmost alarm is felt by the authorities in
Dublin, nad that the most rapid military movements are taking place towards
the South. The positions taken by the people are naturally strong- they have
doubtless been selected by men possessing considerable skill, and if the
opposition be resolute and prevail, the troops may have already suffered a
defeat.
The government papers state that a correspondence was
found among Smith
O'Brien's papers, completely inculpating no less than a Catholic Archbishop,
and four Bishops, besides numbers of the inferior Clergy, in the late
revolutionary movement, and that a case of high treason can fully be made
out against them. The government, however, are not only averse to
proceeding against them, but have sought to prevent the slightest
verification of the rumored guilt of the parties, for reasons known to
themselfs, but Mr. Broff has promptly served the government prosecution with
notice to produce the contents of the portfolio said to contain the
implicatory letters. The prosecutors are thus placed in a dilemma, or if
they decline to produce the correspondence, a strong prejudice will be
created against the government, and a feeling of lively sympathy awakened on
behalf of Smith O'Brien.- One thing, however, is certain, that if the trials
positively be proceeded with, the present movement will exercise a damning
influence upon any probabilities which might have been in Smith O'Brien's
favor. Nothing but the decided triumph of the people, it is greatly feared,
will now save him from conviction.

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE
Interesting Details from Ireland.
[ From English Papers per last Steamer]

The Liverpool correspondent of the New York Courier writes as follows under
date of the 16th ult.:-
The state of Ireland has assumed a new phase, and the slumbering tranquility
of the South has suddenly burst forth into open insurrection. The formidable
demonstration in which the peasantry are at this moment engaged is variously
represented but all accounts concur in showing that its extent far exceeds
any thing of the kind attempted since 1798; and that its probable issue is
difficult to be estimated. We cannot find that it has arisen from political
causes, but in the present state of the country it is utterly impossible
that it could continue long to be dissented from the ruling passion of the
day. Commencing as it did, in the agrarian discontent which pervades the
entire of the South- the result of the present want and prospective
starvation- we find that it speedily allied itself to the smouldering
elements of political violence, and that in the present outbreak all the
purposes of a decided revolution are unequivocally contemplated.

The Clonmel Chonicle adds:
The most exciting reports reached Clonmel this morning of an outbreak at
Carrick-on-Suir. A man fr om that place came into Clonmel this morning in
great haste, bringing with him all the money he could collect, to get gold
for it. He described Carrick as being in an awful state. The hills all
around covered with armed men, who have forced all the farmers to give
barrels of bread, meat and other supplies, as well as arms and ammunition.
Many of them have been also forced to join the movement, and he stated that
Carrick was to be taken forthwith. Not a laborer was seen between Carrick
and Clonmel, until he reached this town; all have joined the rebels on the
hills, who are represented to number several thousand.

And in a Second Edition states:

At Newtown Hill, the insurgents, it is believed, have formed an encampment,
and I am assured by a person who travelled close by it, that it is covered
with people. The military have formed a camp close by. Last night Curraghmore
was attacked by a body of insurgents, for the purpose of taking the swivel
guns and cannon, with which the Marquis of Waterford recently fortified it.
The Marquis sent for the troops, but I did not hear of the result. A large
body of Marines left Waterford this morning, for the scene, having been
first served out with biscuit and meat for some days; they were marched off
by Major General Macdonald, who is busily engaged at that place, in the
disposition of troops at his command. Every thing leads me to believe that
we are on the eve of another insurrection.

At Carrick the greatest excitement prevails in consequence of the belief
there that the bridge of Graney had been thrown down to prevent the troops
crossing; the arches are still standing but the battlements are demolished
and the roadway picked up. The 3d Bu??s and 83d regiments which were to pass
through here today, have been stopped at Carrick, and despatched to the
scene of disturbance. A gentleman informed me that at Pilltown two pieces of
artillery had arrived an a large number of troops. the military which had
been sent for to Carrick, were returned towards Curraghmore; horse, foot and
artillery are now on the move in all directions.

The Iowa Democratic Union
Keosauqua, Van Buren, Iowa
Nov. 9, 1849

FROM
GALWAY COUNTY, IRELAND- The following is an extract from a private letter
received by the Caledonia, from an officer of the Bank of Ireland, whcih will be
read with melancholy interest:
-KELLS, (Ireland) 27th Sept, 1849.
"The coming winter will, I fear, witness as great
distress in this country as prevailed during the last two years. Although the
harvest has been most abundant and the potatoes though partially deceased, still
in large quantity, yet the low price of all sorts of agricultural produce will
render the farmers less able than heretofore to employ labor, and consequently
the poor classes will be deprived of some of that employment which at the best
of times was not sufficient. In all parts of Ireland the people are bent on
emigrating to our country, and are using every exertion to realize, by sale of
crops, land, or other property they possess, sufficient funds to take them to
"the States," where they hope to be happy and independent which they
cannot expect here."

The Gazette
published Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Nov. 16, 1848

From the Mo. Republican
Telegraphic Dispatches
Arrival of the America

New York, Nov. 9
The fine steamer, America, arrived last night at 12
o'clock from
Liverpool, bringing dates seven days later from Europe.
The sentence of O'Brien, Meagher, McManus and O'Donohue,
has been
commuted to transportation for life. In reply to the sentence, Meagher and
McManus spoke with the eloquence of Emmet.

IRELAND
Duffy's trial had been brought to a conclusion, but no verdict was rendered.
The country represented a deplorable picture, growing upon the failure of
the potato crop.

[From the Mo. Republican]
NEWS BY THE EUROPA
Unparalleled Barbarity- O'Brien to be Hung and Quartered.
New York, Oct 25--7 P.M.

Smith O'Brien has been sentenced to be hung on
Saturday, the 11th, and
have his head chopped off, and body drawn and quartered. The jury, however,
united in an unanimous recommendation of the prisoner to the mercy of the
Crown.
Up to the sailing of the steamer, no definite
information of the course
the Lord Lieut. would pursue, was ascertained.- The Court sat on Saturday,
and the Lord Chief Justice proceeded with his charge till after ten, when
adjournment occurred to listen to the evidence of a protest of students at
Trinity College going to show that Dobbl??, the informer, had perjured
himself. The judge resumed his charge at 4 o'clock, and the jury retired. In
an hour nad twenty minutes they returned a verdict of '[cannot read]' which
produced profound sensation. Appended to the verdict was the following:
"We earnestly recommend the prisoner to the
merciful consideration of
the Government- the jury being unanimously of the opinion that for many
reasons his life should be spared."
On Monday, Mr. O'Brien was brought up for sentence. His
manly bearing,
his calmness, composure, and firmness, were themes of observation throughout
the Court. The clerk of the crown then asked Mr. O'B. what he had to say why
the sentence of the law should not be passed on him.
Mr. O'B. then said:
"My Lord: It is not my intention to enter into any
vindication, however
much I might have availed myself of this opportunity of so doing. With a
consciousness that I have performed my duty to my country, that I have done
only which, in my opinion, it was the duty of every Irishman to have done, I
am now prepared to abide the consequences of having performed my duty to my
native land. Proceed with your sentence."
After a brief address to the prisoner, the Lord Chief
Justice put on
the black cap. "SENTENCE is, that you, William Smith O'Brien, be taken from
whence you came, then be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and
then be hanged by the neck until you be dead. That afterwards your head
shall be severed from your body--your body be divided in four quarters, and
be disposed of as Her Majesty may please; and may God have mercy on your
soul."
The most profound sensation followed. He took an
affectionate leave of
the crowd, who rushed to take him by the hand, and manifested good
composure. He was then removed in a prison van to the jail. Lady O'Brien was
flown to the Queen in behalf of her son. A rumor prevails that the Lord
Lieutenant was inexorable and that no mercy would be shown. McManus has also
been convicted. D.G. Duffey's trial was to open about the 21st. The trial of
Donohue for high treason was progressing.

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa

May 3, 1849
Ireland
The reports for the last year from the district poor-law inspectors to the
commissioners at Dublin, record volumes of misery. Every page of this book
teems with evidence of the exemplary patience of the peasantry of Ireland,
under sufferings that have had no parallel in the annals of the civilized
world. A clergyman from a parish in Connaught says this whole district is
now almost a wilderness. Out of a population of twelve thousand, four years
ago, scarce on-half now remain; so that creatures that still live may be
termed rather an accumulation of dead and dying humanity than what is
generally meant by a population.

The Rev. Dr. Cooly, a Roman Catholic prelate, died
of cholera at Drogheda on
the 6th inst. He was highly esteemed by all persons of all religious and
political persuasions.

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa

July 26, 1849

New York, July 18.
Several serious riots have recently taken place between the Catholics and
Orangemen at St. Catharines, in Upper Canada- 6 were killed and several wounded.
On the 12th, a street skirmish occurred at Hamilton, in which 9 were killed. The
cholera is gaining rapidly at Montreal- on Saturday 45 deaths occurred; the
increase of deaths is attributed to the sudden change in weather. The epidemic
is spreading among the troops. Lord Elgin refuses to allow the soldiers to leave
town, as requested by the Military Commander.
Many of the first class people have fallen victims to the epidemic in Quebec.

"EVICTION"- This is a
new word to the American ear, as it is practically defined in Ireland at this
time. It means, the pulling down the houses about the heads of the poor
starving, dying tenantry. If, in the time, way and manner in which it is done,
it will not rank lower in wickedness, in the eye of a just God, than common
highway robbery and murder, we judge incorrectly. Do men on earth suppose that
such inhumanity goes down uninvited with a curse?--Galena [Ill.] Gazette

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
October 17, 1850

MEAGHER, THE IRISH PATRIOT
The following scene, transcribed from a recent letter
written from
Australia by Thomas Meagher, the Irish Patriot, will be read with interest:-
My landlady is a devout Wesleyan, and amiable female of
stupendous
proportions, and proportionate loquacity; her husband is a Wesleyan too, a
shoemaker by trade, and a spectre in appearance; so much so indeed, that the
wife may be styled, with the strictest geometrical propriety, his "better
half," and three-quarters. Upon coming to terms with them in the first
instance, that is, when I had the two front rooms, and the two back ones,
and agreement dialogue took place, of which the following may be considered
a fair report:
"Sir," said Mrs. Anderson, sticking a pin
into the sleeve of her gown,
and spreading down her apron before her-
"Well, Ma'am," said I.
"Why, sir," says she, "you see how it
is, me and my husband be
Wesleyans, and we don't like a-cooking on Sundays, and so if it don't matter
to you sir, we'd a soon not dress you any meat that day, for we're commanded
to rest and do no work upon the Sabbath, and that you see, sir, is just how
it is."
"As to that," I replied, I don't much mind
having a cold dinner upon
Sundays, but then, there are potatoes! "Potatoes, you know, Mrs. Anderson,
are very insipid when cold."
This was a difficulty of great magnitude.- Mrs.
anderson paused, and
swelled up immensely. When the swelling subsided a little, she cast an
enquiring glance at her husband, as if to implore him for a text, a note, or
comment, to help her out of a difficulty in which, like a sudden deluge, the
conflicting ideas of a boiled potatoe and the day of rest had invoked her.
The glance had the desired effect. Mr. Anderson took
off his
spectacles, held them with crossed hands reverently before him, threw back
his head, threw up his eyes, and fixing them intently upon a remarkable
constellation of flies, close to a bacon hook over him, seemed to inquire
from it, in the absence of the stars, a solution of the difficulty.
A moments consultation sufficed- a new light descended
upon Mr.
Anderson, and yielding to the inspiration of the moment, he pronounced it
his opinion that a boiled potato would not break the Sabbath, and "in that,
or any other way, he'd be happy to server the gen'l'm'n."
At the close of the letter occurs this beautiful
passage:
Oh! should hearts grow faint at home, and, in the cold,
dark current of
despair or grief, fling down the hope they once waved, like a sacred torch
on high; tell them that here in this stranger land, and in the loneliest
haunts and pathways of it- here, on the shores of a lake, where as yet no
sail has sparkled, and few sounds of human life as yet have scared the wild
swan, or started the black snake from its nest- tell them that here, upon a
lone spot in the far Southern seas, there are prayers full of confidence,
and faith and love, offered up for Ireland's cause and that the belief in
her redemption and her glory has accompanied her sons to their place of
exile, and there, like some beautiful and holy charm, abides with them,
filling the days of their humble solitude with calm light, and joyous
melodies, and visions of serene and radiant loveliness.

Burlington Hawkeye
Burlington, Des Moines Co, Iowa
July 17, 1851

IRELAND-
It appears, from an official account, that a number of troops serving in Ireland
have, in consequence of the quiet and improved condition of that country, been
reduced from about 26,000 to the present strength of 18,000 men.
The Cork Constitution says: "There is a great
diminution in the number of emigrants proceeding to America. Only four or five
vessels are not at the quays preparing to leave. It is with difficulty the
requisite number of emigrants can be made up, many preferring to go by
Liverpool.
The Irish people have drunk, in the ten years from 1841
to 1850 inclusive, 66,822,720 gallons of spirits. The following are the
quantities annually consumed:-1841, 6,435,443, gallons; 1842,5,290,650;
1843,5,546,483; 1844, 6,451,137; 1845, 7,605,196; 1846, 7,952,076; 1847,
6,037,383; 1848, 7,072,933; 1849, 6,973,333; 1850,7,408,086.

One
Week's Immigration-Eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine foreign
immigrants arrived at New York during the past week.

Burlington Tri-Weekly News;
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa; 14 Nov 1854

A court in Ireland has
recently decided that the forgery of the name of a person who cannot write is
not a legal forgery.

Burlington Tri-Weekly News;
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa; 2 Dec 1854

One hundred and forty
passengers sailed from New York for Ireland on Monday, and 200 more are to
follow. They are persons who are returning to their fatherland, not finding
things in this country as they expected.

Burlington Tri-Weekly News;
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa; 10 Apr 1855

An association is to be
established in Toronto, for the purpose of inducing emigrants from Ireland to
settled in Canada in preference to the United States.

Burlington Tri-Weekly News;
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa; 9 May 1855

Emigration from Europe to New
York, has received a decided check. The number that arrived in March and April
1854, were 34,906; in March and April, 1855- up to last Tuesday-5,358, which
gives the enormous decrease in two months of 20,458. In the period of last year
13, 506 of the emigrants came from Ireland; but from the 1st of March to the
24th inst., the arrivals from that country numbered only 1681, which exhibits a
falling off to the amount of 11,825. This is attributable mainly to the distress
that has prevailed among the laboring classes in this country, within the past
season.

Burlington Tri-Weekly News;
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa; 18 May 1855

A comic writer in the California
Pioneer says that on the plank road near Southwick's Pass, an inn or hotel is
kept by a native American Irishman, whose sign exhibits the harp of Ireland
encircling the shield of the United States, with the mottoes:
"Erin Go Unum."
"E Pluribus Braugh."

Davenport Democrat
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Oct 6, 1873

MARY CANAVAN
It became part of my lot in life to help the Irish
Government during
the eventful period of the Irish famine of 1846-7.
I was a Poor Law Inspector, and had a large district in
my charge. I
had necessarily to go about a good deal and visit workhouses, hospitals and
relief natations in the discharge of my duties. My mode of conveyance, as a
rule, was an outside Irish jousting car,and with one horse, or rather indeed
with a pony, I used of a day sometimes to get over fifty long Irish miles.
I started one morning in the early spring from my
headquarters to visit
a station in a very remote and wild part of my district. My man
servant-coach-man, groom, butler, valet, all comprised in one very original
and funny individual called "Mick" - accompanied me. The night before
I left
on this particular journey, in which occurred an incident which I am about
to relate. I told Mick to be sure to stock the "well" of teh car with
rye
bread, which I baked in my own house,and above all not to forget to fill my
flask with brandy, which, as we shall presently see, was not altogether used
for selfish purposes.
Many a time when I have been driving along the wild
roads, I have seen
people who, to my official knowledge, were in the rectn of the full amount
of ration relief, literally looking starved. The avidity with which they
seized and devoured the loaves of rye bread I used to give them the "well,
"
satisfied me that the money which was sent to us Poor Law Inspectors from
all parts of the United Kingdom to expend in any we thought fit, and which
for the most part we applied to the establishment of bake-houses, and all
the good which it was intended to, and even more than the generous donors
could have anticipated.
I scarcely think I was ever out on a more lovely day
than that to which
I allude, and if one could only have felt that the people were not dying in
the hundreds throughout the district, and throughout the island generally,
such a day, amid such scenery, would have brought the fullest enjoyment.
Skirting along lovely lakes, above which ran hills clad
with vernal
beauty, I drove some ten miles, and then turned off by a mountain road which
led by a long descent to a wild and barren bog, stretching unbrokenly for
many miles toward the sea coast. As we got on the bog, there was an
indication that there had been a turf road, but gradually its traces became
more and more indistinct, nad we had to make the best of our way across the
"blasted earth." At last we came to a road again, and I was enabled to
shape
my course for the relief station, which I was about to inspect.
The path, or road, or whatever else one might choose to
call it, was
straight and so there was nothing to interrupt the view right before us.
Mick, who was never much inclined to wrap himself, up
la? himself and
had been discussing eloquently on the value of good sound roads, giving me
his private opinions as to the character of that on which we were then
traveling, suddenly called out:
"What on earth, air, is that before us?"
"Where?" said I.
"Don't you see, sir? The Lord save us- a body
stretched across the
road."
On looking before me at about a hundred yards'
distance, I saw that to
which Mick directed my attention.
"Yes, said I, "no doubt it is some poor
creature who has died, on the
way to the station at _______; but we shall soon know."
On coming up we found it was the corpse of a woman
apparently about
forty years of age.
Accustomed as I was to see the effects of famine, I was
horrified at
the ghastly appearance which she presented. Her face was literally so
attenuated that I could see all its venous and arterial anatomy as well as
if the skin had been removed.
While looking at this horrid sight, it seemed to me
that she could not
have been very long dead. I could see no hatitation for miles around.
"Possibly," I said, "life is not quite extinct," and,
recollecting the
little smattering of doctoring which I learned in early life, I thought it
worthwhile to see what effect a stimulant might have.
"Bring me my brandy flask at once, Mick,"
said I, " and help me to
raise her head."
"For what, sir?" said he. "Bedad, it
would take more than your honor
could do to bring her back again."
"Well, I added "do what I tell you, Mick, and
let us hope for the
best."
We lifted the body and placed it against a little
hillock which was
quite close to where we found the woman, and at once proceeding to open her
mouth, a proceeding attended with considerable difficulty. Holding her head
back, I managed to pour nearly half of the contents of my flask ( a pretty
large one by the way) down her throat, when suddenly I felt a sort of
convulsion at the back of her neck which rested on my hand. This convulsion
was to my delight, speedily followed by a faint hiccup, and at once made up
my mind that if I only persevered, I might have the intense satisfaction of
restoring a fellow creature to life.
Mick and I then set to work, and taking the cushions of
the car we
stretched our poor patient in a recumbent position. We then commenced to rub
the extremities, which were like ice, and with a good will we rubbed and
rubbed until we were rewarded by seeing the head move, the lips twitch, and
various other indications of returning vitality. But to succeed must bea
work of some time, and here we were nearly fifteen miles away from the
station. We worked on, however, for a little time longer, and I then
determined to get as fast as I could to my destination. We placed her on the
car in a sitting position, and then started for ________.
We had not gone more than four or five hundred yards
when we
encountered a most abominable stench, which was so sickly that I determined
to stop and ascertain what it was. Looking to the right our attention was
directed to a thin column of bluish smoke, which came out of the bog.
Walking over to the place from whence the smoke issued, and scarcely able to
breathe from the offensive odor, which became worse and worse, I found to my
horror that the smoke was from a human habitation, if such could be called,
and old gravel pit, in which I very soon found the cause of the stench. Here
were lying two bodies in an advanced stage of decomposition, and old man and
woman. I shudder now when I think of the sight I saw. It was horrible beyond
description. It occurred to me at once that the womanwe found on the road
had crept out of this hovel on seeing the car coming across the bog and had
sunk in the helpless state of exhaustion in which we found her.
And so it turned out to be when I made subsequent
inquiry.
We now resumed our journey and at last arrived at the
station where I
lost no time in getting medical relief for my poor patient, and in sending
to the gravel pit to have the bodies removed and buried.
The next day I returned to headquarters and from time
to time
afterwards had letters from the doctor reporting to me that the woman very
speedily recovered, and out of moneys placed at my disposal for charitable
purposes I was enabled to contribute to her comfort in the shape of
clothing.
A couple of months or more passed away and the severity
of the famine
was mitigated by the abundance of food which came into the country. The
people began to look better, and every one was in better spirits.
My visits to the remoter stations of my district were
necessarily
fewer, for I had important duties to discharge at the town in which I lived,
and where the union workhouse was situated. They were now principally
directed to the prevention of ????? in the adjoining ????? of relief. Though
the disease was still great, yet it was an fact within the experience of all
those engaged in the Poor Law service, that [cannot read line] to a very
large extent, and it was no easy matter to control them.
On another lovely morning, now far advanced in the
?????, I started for
the station at________., near which occured the incident which I have
endeavored to tell. As I passed by the spot where our progress on the road
was arrested by the body of the poor woman, Mick said:
"Ah, your honor, glory be to God, and thanks to
you, do your recollect
the creature we saw here?"
"Yes, Mick," said I, " and I hope we
shall never see such a sight
again."
"Amen, sir," said he giving the pony a gentle
reminder that he was to
get along as quickly as he could. We drove on for a couple of miles, when we
met a group of the peasantry of the district, going to the relief station
for their rations of Indian meal stirabout.
I stopped to make some Inquiries, when suddenly I felt
my knees
embraced, and I saw a girl about eighteen years of age kissing my feet.
"What do you want, my good girl?" said I.
"Ah! your honor, " said she, looking at me
with an expression I can
never forget," don't you recollect Mary Canavan?"
"Mary Canavan! surely you cannot be the woman
I-"
"Ah! yes, sir," she cried.
And there she was, the shriveled hag of forty
transformed into a girl
of eighteen and all by the simple administration of a wholesome food for a
few weeks.
To those who saw such scenes as I did, this will not
appear strange.
But even now, even at this lapse of time, when the great famine of Ireland,
with all its horrible circumstances, is well-nigh forgotten, I venture to
tell this story about poor Mary Canavan.Dyersville Commercial
Published Dyersville, Dubuque Co, IA
Friday, June 21, 1878

An Irish Eviction Described

In my checkered life I have been a private soldier, and, between 1840 and
1850, I was in the county Cork, stationed at Ballancholy. Those of you who
are Irishmen will want no description of that beautiful valley of the Lee
which stands between the hills from Cork, and, in summer, seems a very
paradise, green grass growing on the water's side, and burnished with gold
in the morning, and ruddy to very crimson in the evening sunset. I went
there on a November day. I was one of a troop to protect the law officers,
who had come with the agent to make an eviction a few miles from Inniscarra,
where the river Bride joins the Lee. It was a miserable day- rain freezing
into sleet as it fell, and the men beat down wretched dwelling after
wretched dwelling- some thirty or forty perhaps. They did not take much
beating down; there was no floor to be taken up; the walls were more mud
than aught else, and there was but little trouble in the leveling of them to
the ground. We had got our work about three parts done when on of them, a
woman, ran and threw herself on the ground. We had got our work about three
parts done when one of them, a woman, ran and threw herself on the ground,
wet as it was, before the Captain of the troop, and asked that her house
might be spared- not for long, but for a little while. She said her husband
had been born in it and that he was ill of the fever and could not live
long, and she asked that he might be permitted to die in it in peace. Our
Captain had no power; the law agent wanted to get back to Dublin; his time
was of importance and he would not wait; and that man was carried out while
we were there, in front of us, while the sleet was coming down- carried out
on a wretched thing- you could not call it a bed- and he died there, while
we were there; and three nights afterward, while I was sentry on the front
gate at Ballancholy barracks, we heard a cry, and when the guard was turned
out we found this poor woman there, a raving maniac, with one dead babe in
one arm, and another in the other, clinging to the cold nipple of her
lifeless breast. And if you had been brothers to such a woman, sons of such
a woman, father of such a woman, would not rebellion have seemed the holiest
gospel you could have preached? Two hundred and fifty thousand evictions
took place in the twenty years preceding 1866. Two hundred and fifty
thousand! Can you multiply the misery of that 250,000? Brother separated
from sister, husband separated from wife, the Union Workhouse taking one,
and the other going out to find life if he can.-
CHARLES BRADLAUGH

Ireland
seems greatly disturbed. The discontented tenants, who have no money to pay
their rent and do not seem to be much in the humor of paying it if they did have
money, are holding mass-meetings all over the country. The regular formula at
such gatherings during the last six weeks has been to pass resolutions calling
for abatement of rent and the establishment of peasant proprietorships. But when
twelve or twenty thousand angry Irishmen are collected, among whom Fenianism is
latent, however well kept out of sight, something more than resolutions is
always meant and accomplished. Mr. Parnell, M.P., the foremost advocate of Home
Rule and vigorous defender of the Irish University bill, has just made a
triumphant progress from one of the meetings to the other carrying the Irish
with him. It needed but a spark to fire his inflammable audiences to the point
of revolution. At Limerick thunders of cheers were given whenever Fenianism was
named; it was declared with wild fury that the only way of dealing with the
landlords was by "shooting them" by "an ounce of lead", etc.
etc. and Mr. Parnell, though he did not propose these heroic remedies, did not,
it is asserted, censure or discourage them. In Munster the Queen's name was
hissed whenever it was mentioned. The Home Rule League have issued orders for a
series of meetings to be held in the coming month in the chief political centers
in Ireland. It is significant that these meetings are ordered as
"demonstrations," and that the rebellious utterances of the speakers
are emphasized by the presence of mounted contingents armed with guns, pikes and
even plough-shares, as in the times of the Croppies and Peep o' Day Boys.
Mr. Parnell, O'Connor Power and other Home Rulers
receive their due share of abuse, which they probably have worked for and want
to strengthen their hold over their passionate constituency. But the volume of
indignation is poured out on this credulous half-starved, ignorant constituency.
All Irishmen are denounced as traitors and conspirators. It has become suddenly
apparent, too, to loyal Englishmen, that Ireland is greatly over-represented in
Parliament, and gobbles up more than her share of benefits and
indulgences; the the large Irish vote in English cities, especially in the West
and Northwest, influences English elections in favor of Home Rule, and that the
enormous fertility of the Irish race in England is poisoning and deteriorating
the Nation. In short, Ireland is the bugbear at present in English politics, not
to be dreaded probably, but by all means to be put down at any cost. If there
was any chance of an abatement of rents, or the establishment of peasant
proprietorships, for these poor people, they have lost all hope of it by their
recent furious demonstrations. Their real condition, the failure of their crops,
their hunger and their just demands for relief, are all lost sight of in
England; nothing is remembered but their Fenianism.
Mr. Parnell probably induces them to believe that there
is some present actual good to be gained by these threats of rebellion; or that
there is a chance of success if they do rebel-indeed he drew a vivid picture at
Limerick of their English landlords cringing in terror before them. But to an
outsider it looks as if he and his colleagues were simply stirring up Ireland to
fury to increase their own prestige and power in Parliament. The man is likely
to have his own way who holds an angry bull-dog in check. But in this case
neither the man nor his opponent apparently cares much what becomes of the
bull-dog.

Two men have been arrested in Dublin charged with
having used language
in public speeches tending to incite a breach of the peace. James Daly,
editor of the Connaught Telegraph, has also been arrested for articles
appearing in his paper. It is reported that Parnell has entirely abandoned
his proposed visit to America. The garrisons at Clare Castle, West Point,
and other important places are to be reinforced.
More arrests are to be made in Ireland of parties
charged with
seditious conduct, including several clergymen. A London dispatch says it is
believed that it will be almost impossible to sustain the indictments for
sedition against the persons just arrested. At the Home Rule conference in
London on the night of November 20th, it was resolved to hold a mass meeting
of the Irish inhabitants in London and all sympathizers with Ireland in Hyde
Park, not later than the 30th of November, to protest against the arrest of
Daly, Killian and McDevitt. All the Home Rule members of Parliament,
resident in London, will be invited to attend.
...Parnell moved that the meeting call upon the
Irishmen to pronounce
by public meeting their condemnation of the action of the government which
is unconstitutional and illegal, and thus show to the world that Irishmen
are not to be intimidated by persecution. Mr. Parnell accused the government
of entrapping Irishmen by the use of paid spies. He advised Irishmen to be
calm, because if they attempted to emulate the government in illegal action,
violence and disorder, then they would be doing what the butcher and
destroyer of the poor Afghans and Zulus desire them to do. [Jos. Gillis]
Beggar said no earthly power could ever succeed against the united and
determined efforts of Irishmen in their struggle for their soil. The
Irishmen would show Lord Beaconsfield that they knew how to win a battle and
though they played against a man who had loaded the dice, their cause was
the strongest. He said the land system was already tottering to its fall,
and declared that Parnell was the leader of the Irish people!
The anti-rent agitation in Ireland still
continues. A great meeting
was held near Balla, Nov. 22d. The chair was occupied by John Louden,
President of the National Land League of Mayo. Charles S. Parnell and Edward
Dwyer Gray, and several other prominent gentlemen were present. Resolutions
were passed protesting against the recent attempt of the government to
stifle the voice of constitutional agitation and drive the people into acts
of violence; also calling upon the people of Ireland to maintain the
attitude of self control which has hitherto characterized the movement, and
to carefully abstain from giving the government any excuse for inaugurating
a policy of coercion, which the meeting was convinced they have in
contemplation. After the Balla meeting, hundreds of those in attendance
marched in procession to the farm of Dempsey, the tenant who was to have
been ejected. Much excitement was manifested there.

Two
large land meetings were held in Co. Galway on Saturday, Nov. 1 at which were
present Charles S. Parnell & Mitchell Henry, home rule members of
Parliament.
Catholic bishops of Ireland adopted resolutions
appealing to the government and all public bodies and private individuals to
help the poor, as the poor law is insufficient to meet the necessities of the
impending crisis. The bishops at the same time exhort their flocks to bear their
trials patiently, to respect the rights of others and to pay their just debts.

One of
the greatest demonstrations that ever occurred in County Mayo was held at
Swinford Sunday. Nearly 20,000 farmers were present. Parnell made a speech in
support of the resolution, which was adopted, condemning the action of the
government. Sympathetic demonstrations have taken place in Scotland. The rent
agitation seems likely to benefit the tenantry; in a recent conference with some
of the most prominent home rule members, Beaconsfield said that the government
will make concessions to rent-ridden farmers.
Sligo, Ireland, was on the verge of a riot on the night
of Nov. 25 and the police had to clear the streets. They were stoned, but made
several arrests. Davitt was serenaded by two bands. The police paraded the
streets next morning, but no fresh disturbances occurred.
The magistrates at Sligo on the 28th of November,
closed the case and committed Killen for trial and bail. The court was then
ordered cleared, but Davitt and Rea remained in defiance of the order. The
court was more forbearing in its conduct toward the prisoners than is usual for
an English court.
The Pope has written to Irish bishops asking them to
interpose between the people and the government to avert strife and to pacify
the people by assuring them that the English government will promptly examine
into the questions which have caused the present agitation.

The Connought assizes opened Dec.
11. During the day several processions of Irishmen paraded through the streets,
and all the approaches to the court house were thronged with people. A large
force of constabulary was stationed about town, and the police were posted in
strong force inside of the court room and about the building. The judge
addressed the grand jury in relation to the trial of the agitators, and defined
the crime of setition. He said Brennan's case was more serious on account of
Brennan to seduce the police from their duty.
The grand jury have found true bills for sedition for
Davitt, Killen and Daly. The counsel for Killen protested and advised Killen to
stay in prison. The sub-sheriffs of Mayo, and a large force of police, went to
Loonamore to evict the farmer Demphsey. The eviction was accomplished quietly.
The tenants remaining on the property were forbidden to shelter the Demphsey
family, which, at last accounts, remained by the roadside. A Dublin
correspondent asserts that the Government does not intend to proceed with the
prosecution against Davitt, Killen and Daly.
A Dublin dispatch confirms the statement that the
prosecution against Davitt, Daly and Killen will not be pressed. Placards have
been posted for a monster meeting at Killarney on the 26th of December. The
language of the placards is violent, but advises agitation within the law.

The
evicted tenant who struck down Lord Ferney in the Limerick Club House has been
sentenced to five years penal servitude. The sentence caused much sensation in
the court.
Saturday, Dec. 13th on the porch of the Limerick county
Club House an evicted tenant with a cudgel felled to the floor Lord Fermoy, who
resides in the County Limerick. Lord Fermoy remained sensless for a time. The
assailant was immediately seized and taken to prison.

Fairfield Tribune
Fairfield, Jefferson Co, Iowa
Thursday, Jan 1, 1880

Ireland

The
Dempsey family, evicted at Balla, Ireland, have been reinstated in their home,
the rent of the land having been paid by subscriptions.

Burlington Hawkeye
Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa
Feb 5, 1880

THE STARVATION IN IRELAND

Dublin,
Feb. 3- At a meeting of the Mansion house committee, the lord mayor referred to
reports that three inquests had been held in the neighborhood of Parsonstown,
wherein verdicts were rendered of death from destitution, and stated that no
application for relief had been received from that district.
Dublin, Feb. 1- At a meeting of the Mansion house
committee last night, Lord Mayor Grey presiding, it was announced that £23,000
had been received to date, and £15,300 disbursed. The chairman complained of
the attacks which had been made in America on the constitution of the committee
and its mode of distribution of the funds entrusted to it and read letters from
the Roman Catholic Bishops McEvilly, of Galway and Dugan of Clonfert, expressing
astonishment at these attacks, and declaring that the Mansion house fund is
administered solely with a view to the relief of the distress, and that the
committee enjoys the public confidence. Archbishop French, of the church of
Ireland, was present and joined in these expressions. It was announced that the
committee had received £3,000 additional from Sidney, making a total from the
Australian colonies of £21,000.

A
telegram from Taber Courry states that the famine is raging here.
A daily news Dublin dispatch says: "There is no
longer any doubt that the famine fever has appeared in some parts of the West
and South of Ireland. A letter read by the Mansion House Relief Committee, from
Charleston, Mayo County, says famine fever of the most dangerous type is very
prevalent and is making much progress. It has also appeared in Swenford, Mayo Co
and Glengariff, Cork County.

A band of
men numbering one hundred, partly armed, and marching in military order,
traversed an estate near Tralee, Ireland, on the night of Nov. 4th, forcing the
tenants to swear not to pay above a a certain amount of rent. The address of the
Land League to the people of Ireland declares that the agitation is thoroughly
legal and peaceful, and will be carried on peacefully until its object is
attained. The address concludes by asking contributions for defense. At the Land
League meeting Parnell said he had reason to believe that the Government desired
to postpone the trials until the January term, which could prevent those
traversers who are members of parliament from taking their seats at the meeting
of Parliament in February. Parnell said he intended to press for an immediate
and speedy trial. At a meeting of the Land League at Westport, the Chairman,
John Leville said: "People should now be more determined than ever to
asserting their rights. Nationalists of Ireland, England and America will no
doubt show the Government by their prompt and patriotic action that the cause of
freedom, the banner of which is now raised in Ireland, and will not be put down
without a gigantic struggle." An address made by the Land League in Lougres,
concludes as follows: "The solemn hour strikes upon the dial of time, and a
tear blotted history of your long suffering in your country flies before you.
Approach it, men of Ireland, and write upon its most glorious page the
imperishable words of freedom. God save Ireland."
Dispatches of November 16 say: If the expedition to
Lord Ernes house proves unsuccessful, the tenants intend to hold meetings in the
northern counties and appeal to the northern tenants. The idea of the expedition
of the Lough Mask tenants to Lord Ernes house was started by the parish
priest, who is organizing the movement. Parnell will go to Paris immediately.
John Bright, speaking at Birmingham, strongly condemned the laws of Ireland,
which virtually gave the proprietors a monopoly of the land. Mr. Bright
attributed the state of affairs in Ireland to the rejection by the House of
Lords of the compensation for the disturbance of the peace. A dispatch from
Brussels says that there is a good reason to believe that 8,000 rifles were
purchased in Switzerland by Irishmen who had come from the United States. A
dispatch from Ballinrobe says the commander of the troops there has been ordered
to be ready to proceed at a moment's notice by forced marches in the direction
of Galway, probably on account of the alleged importations of arms in the
disturbed districts from America, by way of the great English ports. The members
of the Land League informed a correspondent that the expedition of the Loughmask
tenants to Lord Erne's had been abandoned, as the executive committee of the
Land League refused to sanction it on the ground that Boycott intends to quit
the district. The address of the tenants has been withdrawn. A dispatch from
Dublin says a telegram has been received from Ballinrobe and 400 additional
troops will be sent there immediately.
Accounts received from various parts of the country by
by agents for property represent the state of the country as still more
disturbed and demoralized. The combination against the payment of rents is
extending into districts hitherto peaceable, and the terrorism which follows
closely in the wake of the Land League is steadily breaking down the opposition
of the law-abiding classes. Tenants who do meet their landlords defiantly, and
refuse to pay more than Griffith's valuation, and in some cases they decline to
pay at all, or demand an arbitrary abatement. Thomas Power O'Connor, M.P.,
speaking at a public meeting in Galway, said: "When the objects of the Land
League are attained, the Irish people will have a more noble course in view-to
wrench themselves from the rule of England."
A telegram from Cork reports that two brothers named
Moore have been arrested on the charge of being concerned in the murder of
Wheeler. Michael Moore accompanied Wheeler when he was killed. The London Times
in an editorial says: "We have no doubt whatever that the power of
arresting a few active organizers and agents of the agrarian and terrorism in
Ireland would bring immediate and enormous relief, not only to the peaceable
people, but to many of the docile peasantry who have been coerced to join in the
agitation." On the night of Nov. 18th the custodian of a farm near Newpolis,
county Limerick, from which a tenant had been evicted, was shot dead by his
fire-side. It is stated that the real object of Parnell's trip to Paris was to
have interviews with certain prominent Fenian leaders. Intelligence has reached
the police of the Balta district, that a large quantity of revolvers had been
consigned to merchants of that neighborhood.

ENGLAND

The
London Daily Telegraph points out that the Cabinet must await the report of the
Irish commission before any land reform can be announced or any vigorous measure
taken. The News, in a leading editorial, says the Cabinet did not come to any
action in regard to the meeting of Parliament. It was ...[line unreadable]...not
yet come when it could be finally decided whether an earlier session is
necessary. The Government is likely to be engaged for some time in considering a
scheme that they intend to introduce on the subject of land tenure in Ireland.

A Dublin
dispatch of Dec. 23d says: The ship Juno, on which arms were found, from Cork
for Baltimore with railway iron and arms, mostly obsolete carbines and revolvers
as taken in tow disabled by a tug and brought to Limerick, where she is now
under repair. Her cargo was necessarily removed. The arms and ammunition were
taken to the Queen's store under military guard. The Pope has addressed a
recommendation to the Irish Bishops, urging them to use efforts towards
affecting the pacification of Ireland.
A tenant farmer named Mullen, while returning from
Ballinrobe market on the night of Dec. 20th, was fired upon by six men,
concealed behind a wall. He died immediately. It is said the murder originated
in a land dispute. An enthusiastic demonstration by the Protestant farmers took
place at Coleraine, county Londonderry, Dec. 26th, at which several resolutions
were passed denouncing the Land League agitation and the inaction of the
government relative to affairs in Irealand.
Foster, chief secretary for Ireland, has written to Mr.
Bence Jones, offering him a military or police protection. Mr. Jones has
declined both. More than fifty witnesses are being summoned by the crown.
Subpoenas have been handed to the reporters of the daily Express summoning them
to produce original notes of speeches and proceedings of the meetings of the
Land League in Dublin since February last. It is understood that the [cannot
read] intend to summon several reports of the Freeman's Journal in connection
with the meetings of the League. A great meeting was held at Loughrea for
the purpose of denouncing the government for suppressing the Collohill meeting.
Several Irish-Americans made speeches...
...The police of Portadown, Ulster, Dec. 24th, arrested
a Home Ruler named Boyle and a number of documents relating to secret Societies
were found upon him. The Inspector General of the Irish Constabulary has issued
a circular warning the police against attempts to d???? from their barracks.
Some soldiers on leave have been ordered to return to Ireland. The feeling of
the lower orders of the people is said to be very strong against the Military,
even in Dublin. The movement of troops has excited a very uneasy feeling. It is
generally believed the the Government is in possession of information warranting
an apprehension of danger, and has made very complete preparations for any
contingency.

This
has been a great day for Clones and for the great cause of the Irish National
party. The largest meeting of the campaign for the election of a Member of
Parliament, has just closed with speeches from Parnell, Healey, Harrington and
other members of the House of Commons, and also their opponents, and I have
witnessed a thoroughly typical scene of the public agitation of the Irish
question.
You will understand the importance of the occasion when
I state that the contest is over a vacancy, caused by the resignation of Mr.
Given from Parliamant, and this, County Monaghan, a Protestant and North Ireland
constituency, has been heretofore supposed to be specially loyal, and little
infected with the spirit and sentiment of the Land League.
But no sooner did the vacancy occur than Mr. Healey
resigned his own seat from Wexford, in the South and offered himself to the
electors of Monaghan for the very purpose of making the fight in the North, in
order to show the English government, in an incisive way, that land troubles are
not over.
There are three candidates in the field; Mr. Monroe,
conservative, Mr. Pringle, liberal, and Mr. Healey, national, and all held
meetings in the Market Square of this town to-day. The crowd was immense for a
small place, and the interest was passionate in its intensity. Both parties seem
to regard it as a sort of battle ground on which to fight the question whether
the land act of 1881 settles matters between the landlords and the tenant
farmers. We have no politics in America such as I heard discussed to-day. We
think we are greatly interested in the success of certain men, ...[cannot read
line]...triumph of a particular party to which we belong. But that is a
different thing from deciding by ballot how much rent one shall pay, or whether
he may have a chance to become owner of the soil on which he and his fathers
have lived for perhaps a hundred years. These questions touch the vital matters
of life to a whole people, and they are almost savagely interested in them, and
discuss them with point, intelligence and fire. This was also pig market day,
and the demand shaped market place, about twice the size of our North Hill
public square, was crowded with people. Mr. Monroe, the conservative, began to
speak about two o'clock form the steps of the beautiful Presbyterian Church, and
had an audience of several hundred. They were evidently well-to-do Protestant
farmers- the satisfied class. I should say that our worthy fellow citizen,
Esquire Robert Getty is a fair example of the electors regarded upon that side.
They were excited and much in earnest.
I ought to say that eight or ten on the ground carried
a stick, or light thorn, in most case apparently out from the bush. Within ten
minutes after the speaking commenced a rash supporter of Healey uttered a groan.
Instantly he received a rap over the head, and as he retreated, another and
another joined in. His friends rushed to his relief, and a little forest of
shillelahs seemed to cover the heads of the crowd. From the steps, it looked as
if every man was getting a rap on the head. The original offender fell and was
badly beaten but was not kicked, nor discouraged from trying to strike back. The
police interfered and the melee was over. The speaking went on as if nothing had
happened, and that was the only disturbance that occurred during the day. No
knives were drawn-there were no pistols to use or display, and in these
particulars there was a great superiority over an average American crowd of
political meetings.
But the great event was the coming of Parnell and
Healey and their supporters. They skillfully delayed their arrival until about
half past 2, driving over from Monaghan, and as they came into the diamond the
enthusiasm was immense. Hundreds of the men looked upon Parnell with awe and
reverence, as the champion of their rights against the landlord oppressor whom
now it was the blessing of their eyes to see, and they testified their devotion
with ?????, and every ?????. I was greatly interested in his
appearance-expecting a grave, dignified, sort of a prophet-like man. He is, on
the contrary a well-dressed dapper-looking young lawyer-like person, pale and
apparently quite sensitive, but the last man one would take for a martyr or a
great reformer. But the agitation, of which he is the chief, has undoubtedly
caused great inroads upon many of the abuses of the land system in Ireland, and
the people many of them regard him as little less than a Savior. He is an
ordinary speaker-not nearly so effective as Mr. Healey, who is also a young man.
Their program was plain and touched the material interests of their bearers
right at home.
It is, as I learned form the speeches and from
conversation with Parnell, that the great land act of 1861 shall not be regarded
as a finalty, but shall be amended so as to clearly provide.
1. That the tenant shall pay no rent upon the
improvements to the land which he himself has made.
2. When his rent is reduced by the commission the
reduction shall take effect from the date of his application, and not from the
date of the decision, which may be years hence, as only 40,000 out of the nearly
half million cases in number that may come before the court have been decided in
two years.
3. The benefits of the acts shall extend to
lease-holders.
4. The tenants shall have a chance to purchase their
buildings at a fair valuation, and pay for them by installments.
The speaker indulged in the utmost freedom of criticism
of the government, and ridicule of their opponents. Mr. Pringle, one of the
candidates, is a wealthy butter merchant, a great industry here, and they dipped
him in buttermilk and made it as ridiculous as possible to think of sending a
"butter culler" to Parliament.
There were constantly interrupted with applause and
exclamations from the crowd-many of ..[cannot read line]...seemed to me I had
never before seen a genuine political meeting. It was presided over by Father
Quinn, the Catholic priest, and several other priests were on the stand, not
withstanding the Pope's advice against the Parnell testimonial, which, by the
way, has now reached $80,000. We were all through the crowd and formed the
acquaintance of many, and I must say no one could ask for more courteous
treatment in any country. The vast audience was good natured, and gave one a
good opinion of the Irish people at home-I mean the Land Leaguer and so called
"agitator." The truth is, they say something to agitate about and, it
appears, can only get a hearing by agitation. The men and women were fairly well
dressed and apparently well fed, and there was not only plenty to drink, but
plenty of drinkers everywhere. The really favorite drink in this country is
whisky. The election is to-morrow and you will know the result long before this
reaches you.
We landed at Queenstown yesterday from the Alaska,
called "the greyhound of the sea," after a quick and pleasant voyage,
and with two hours in Cork and last night in Dublin, came here this morning so
as to get as clear and vivid an idea as possible of the paramount question now
interesting the people of the United Kingdom.
This is a beautiful and picturesque country everywhere,
but of course I have no space to enumerate more than a passing incident, and it
seems to me the meeting at Clones would interest you. This evening we go to
Cayan in the central part and on the edge of the western counties where the
distress has occurred. The crops are looking finely. They told me at the
"Leonard Arms" one thing that seemed sad for Ireland. It is that they
have lately counted as high as 200 persons from the western counties shipping at
the one station for America every two days, for weeks at a time. At that rate
these regions will soon be de-populated. How long will Uncle Sam be big enough
"to give them all a farm?"

B.

Fairfield Tribune
Fairfield, Jefferson Co, Iowa
Thursday, Jan 8, 1884

IRISH AMERICAN
A Ringing Letter from Mr. Frank Madden, of Keokuk, in Reply to Sophist John
Brennan of Sioux City.
(From the Keokuk Democrat)

Mr.
Editor: I have read Mr. Brennan's letter appealing to Mr. King of Des Moines to
move in the formation of an Irish-American Anti-Free Trade League in Iowa.
It is with some regret that I enter into this
discussion, but my sense of duty to my countrymen prompts the act. I think that
I understand this move. The last election has made Iowa a fighting ground, with
chances favorable to democracy in the future. The republican leaders see clearly
their loss, and perhaps defeat. They are now resorting to the wily ways of the
strategist. They have resolved to tamper, if possible, with the faithful
"old guard" of democracy, the Irish. That invincible phalanx, that has
never proved false to party affiliation, cannot be bought and sold in the
political shambles of Iowa, for the insignificant consideration of a single
party issue.
The price for which Mr. Brennan proposes to transfer
the Irish democratic vote of Iowa to the republican party is free trade. He
says, "It is now proposed to reverse this policy, to tear down the high
fences which have guarded the dignity and comfort of American labor for twenty
years." His memory must be at fault. He has forgotten but a few years past
when the tariff was the highest in 1877, when every highway, from the pineries
of Maine to the shores of the calm and placid bosom of the Pacific contained an
endless throng, an innumerable army of laborers begging for a day's labor and
piteously appealing at every wayside door for a crumb to ease their hunger?
These unfortunates were then known as an army of tramps; where then was the
dignity and comfort of American labor under your high protective tariff?
If the tariff protects labor, why does not labor
receive the same compensation in Iowa as it does in western Colorado? There is
but one law governing labor, and that is applicable in every locality. Supply
and demand regulate price. Your designing schemes will miscarry. Your attempts
to delude us by your free trade sophistry will produce barren fruit.
In looking over the tariff list, I find that there is a
duty of 10 per cent upon diamonds and all gems, while upon the overall that
the poor Irish laborer wears there is a duty of 52 1/2 per cent. Why has
not the sympathy for your countrymen prompted you to use your brilliant pen in
denouncing such damnable legislation?
Again, I find there is a duty of 10 per cent upon
paintings and statuary, while upon buckskin mitts, which the poor Irish laborer
wears, the duty is 50 per cent. Has your love for the party of wealth, whose
mansions are adorned with the paintings and statuary that pay almost no duty,
crushed from your heart a desire to see your countrymen righted by judicious
legislation?
Again, I find that morocco leather for fine boots, such
as those worn by the Allisons, the Harlans and the Wilsons pays duty of 10 per
cent and the coarse flannel shirt that the poor Irish laborer wears pays a duty
of 64 per cent. Is your sympathy real or hypocritical? If real, why have you
stood for the last 15 years with folded arms, a silent spectator and watched
your countrymen plundered of half their daily labor by such insidious
legislation, and robbed by the acts of the very party to which you not propose
to adhere to?
Again, I find on the tariff list that cheap dress
goods, worth from 10 to 20 cents per yard that the wives and daughters of the
poor Irish laborer wear pays a duty of 70 per cent; while the velvets that grace
the receptions at our capitol only pay a duty of 35 per cent.
Why have these things escaped your attention? Has your
love for party crushed form your heart the welfare of your countrymen? We can
only look to one party to right us, that party that is pledged to revise the
tariff, that party that will compel the wealthy to pay its proper share of the
revenue.
Again, Mr. Brennan says, "The tie of religion is
but a silken thread compared to the wire cable which binds them (the Irish) to
the indefinite and every varying something called the democratic party."
Such an assertion is a sacrilege, and should have withered upon the lip before
an Irishman should have uttered it. As a nation you may exterminate us, you may
crush us from existence, you may scatter us to the four winds of the world, you
may assail us with adversity, poverty may always be our lot, but we only kneel
to our God, and our religion we hold too sacred to compare with party
affiliations.
Irishmen, will you prove recreant to democracy, the
party that has stood by you in adversity? Do you remember the young American
party, where has it gone to? Did it go into the ranks of democracy, that great
party that crushed it out of existence? You perhaps can answer that question,
but their acts are as vivid in our minds as if but of yesterday, when the
gutters of many of our western cities ran red with the blood of Irishmen; when
our temples of divine worship, which we had dedicated to our God, went up in one
fearful holocaust of destruction; when the atmosphere was stagnant with the
groans of our dying countrymen; when the glare of their little homes illuminated
the heavens; when the blood of our murdered clergy perfumed the scene of
destruction-who was it, I ask you, that in this hour of trial extended to us the
helping hand of fellowship? Who was it that stood manfully insisting that we
should possess equal rights with all men? Answer, I repeat! Who was it but the
democratic party? Now you ask us to prove false to such, recreant to duty, and
to smite that hand that raised us, black and bloody from that fearful conflict.
Think you that we will be guilty of such base ingratitude? Every fibre of our
nature revolts at such a thought.
"If there be a crime
Of deeper dye in all the guilty train
Of human vice, it's ingratitude."
FRANK MADDEN